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Instant Replay: The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer (Paperback)

Description

This classic sports book takes readers inside the 1967 season of the Green Bay Packers, following that storied team from training camp to their dramatic victory in Super Bowl II.

Candid and often amusing, Jerry Kramer describes from a player’s perspective a bygone era of sports, filled with blood, grit, and tears. No game better exemplifies this period than the classic “Ice Bowl” conference championship game between the Packers and the Dallas Cowboys, which Kramer, who made the crucial block in the climactic play, describes in thrilling detail. We also get a rare and insightful view of the Packers’ legendary leader, coach Vince Lombardi.

As vivid and engaging as it was when it was first published, Instant Replay is an irreplaceable reminder of the glory days of pro football.

About the Author

Jerry Kramer was a right guard for the Green Bay Packers from 1958 to 1968. During his time with the team, the Packers won five National Championships and Super Bowls I and II. He was inducted into the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame in 1977. He lives in Boise, Idaho.

Dick Schaap (1934–2002), a sportswriter, broadcaster, and author or coauthor of thirty-three books, reported for NBC Nightly News, the Today show, ABC World News Tonight, 20/20, and ESPN and was the recipient of five Emmy Awards.

Praise for Instant Replay: The Green Bay Diary of Jerry Kramer…

“The best behind-the-scenes glimpse of pro football ever produced.”—The New York Times

“An unprecedented look into the gritty world of professional football. . . . Still the gold standard of sports biographies.”—Sports Illustrated

“A classic for its insights into the game and its people, [written] with wit and without scandal or obscenity. . . . A landmark work.”—Los Angeles Times

“The gold standard for football memoirs. . . . This modern sports classic is a smart, funny and literate diary of the Packers’ successful quest to become the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowl victories.”—The Plain Dealer

“This seminal, as-told-to diary . . . changed the way sports readers expected their heroes to sound. No more of this Grantland Rice purple prose. Schaap gave us the tough jock sounding like a real—and witty and introspective and profane—human being.”—Chicago Sun-Times

“A must read. . . . An insightful look at the sometimes-maddening methods of Lombardi and the love-hate relationship the players had with the legendary coach.”—Green Bay Press-Gazette

“An honest, hilarious and insightful diary, with Lombardi alternately serving as the hero and the villain, the lovable leader and the soul-crushing ogre.”—San Jose Mercury News

“This was the book that started it all—for athletes telling their stories, for sportswriters going in depth, for great athletic tales being bound between the covers. Dick Schaap’s classic is timeless. Required reading for anyone who loves sports or sportswriting.”—Mitch Albom

“One of the great sports books of all time.” —Billy Crystal

“Kramer detailed the 1967 championship season in an understated, respectful tone, but showed a keen eye for details the fan would never glimpse.”—The Baltimore Sun

“One of the rarest of things—a sports book written in English by an adult.”—Jimmy Breslin

“Daring stuff for its time, revealing how athletes really act, talk and think back when such candor was taboo.”—Charlotte Observer

“A no-holds-barred diary. . . . One really gets a sense of the physical, mental and emotional agonies players can go through in a season.”—Orlando Sentinel

“[Kramer is] observant, honest, sensitive and a bone-crusher at right guard.”—The Oregonian

“The ultimate football diary. . . . Detailed and dramatic. . . . Kramer’s description of his decisive block against Jethro Pugh at the goal line in the waning seconds [of the Ice Bowl] . . . is as fresh and raw as the minus-15-degree weather at kickoff.”—Tampa Tribune

“In my life as a writer and reader, there are only a few books that I’ve read over and over again for the sheer pleasure of the experience. Jerry Kramer’s Instant Replay is the only sports book among them. I loved it when I was a teenage, and I love it still today.”—David Maraniss, author of When Pride Still Mattered